


i love me

by chanyeolanda



Series: i belong with you, you belong with me, you're my sweetheart [2]
Category: 15& (Band), 방탄소년단 | Bangtan Boys | BTS
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, Alternate Universe - Soulmates, Characters tagged if they speak, F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-07-04
Updated: 2016-07-04
Packaged: 2018-07-20 02:59:56
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,582
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7387840
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/chanyeolanda/pseuds/chanyeolanda
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>From the moment your soulmate is named, their name appears somewhere on your body. Theoretically, this should make them easier to find.</p><p>Park Jimin has her own name printed on her, and sometimes she's convinced that means she's Forever Alone.</p>
            </blockquote>





	i love me

**Author's Note:**

> -title from hailee steinfeld's song
> 
> -i know nothing about korean universities or culture so just. go with iregularities.
> 
> -names for text messages appear as how jimin has them saved on her phone. i've tried to make it easy to follow, but ask away if you're confused.

Often, people's Soulmark's gave some sort of hint about their soulmate, even if it's just gender. It's harder to have a sexuality crisis when you had an assurance one way or another- although that's not always a guarantee, Jimin knows, not when Yerin had 'Im Jaebum' printed on her bicep and after six months of trying to make it work they called it quits, best of friends, and Yerin admitted that she was very, very gay.

Jimin- Jimin had no such assurance, nothing about her soulmate, her sexuality, no hints (who cares) because-

'It's my name,' she loudly declares, flowers woven in her hair and music thumping in the near distance, drink in hand and plenty more in her veins, talking to a girl she's never met before but had a smile made of sunshine and Jimin always liked warmth. 'It's my own fucking name right there on my foot, Park Jimin, and it's like, what does that even mean?' She downs her drink as Sooyoung laughs. She heaves a sigh. 'I'm forever alone,' she says, 'My own soulmate, my own best friend. I mean, there's a pretty good chance of that working out, right? So I guess that's good. Also, people. And by that I mean sex. No limits. You straight?'

Sooyoung shrugs. 'Maybe. I have a guy's name. But I haven't met him yet, so...'

Jimin grins at her. 'Best news I've heard all night.' 

The next day, as Jimin whines for just five more minutes to sleep in their tent, Dawon expresses her extreme amazement that Jimin had managed to find and hook up with probably the only other Korea-based Korean at the festival.

'I bet you spoke Korean to her as well, despite being the one fluent in English here,' Dawon grouses and Jimin squints up at her.

'We're literally in Goa, what the fuck difference does me knowing English make,' she deadpans and Dawon shoves her shoulder. 

'Don't disappear on me tonight, it's the last night.'

Jimin gapes at her indignantly. 'You ditched me for tall, blonde and bearded!'

'He was French,' Dawon sighs dreamily, 'Had no idea what he was saying. It was great.'

She winds up chatting to a guy on the plane trip home to Korea via Hong Kong while Dawon sleeps on her shoulder. His name's Jackson and he's exuberant as anything, heading to Korea for a bit because of the Hangul scrawled on the inside of his arm.

'I figure why not, you know,' he says, 'Maybe speed up the process.'

'Isn't it meant to be all whenever you meet each other is when you were always going to meet each other? That whole like. Whatever you do was already meant to be done type thing?' Jimin asks, and he shrugs.

'Maybe. Maybe I've always been meant to go Korea. There are good opportunities there. Well, good fencing training programmes. It's not longterm, anyway. More like an exchange thing. But yeah, the Hangul's definitely the deciding factor,' Jackson says and Jimin nods.

'A friend of mine- well, he wasn't at the time, but he accosted me when he heard I'd lived in Thailand for a bit because his name's in Thai? I had to be like, bro, I went to an international school, I can't read Thai. I mean, his soulmate actually also came to Korea. I met him at orientation, became friends, introduced them. They hated each other on sight. Oh my god, it was so annoying, they both kept on bitching to me about each other, Yugyeom was like 'is it possible that the Soulmark means mortal enemies?'' Jimin shakes her head with a snort. 'It was a rough few months.'

'And now? How are they now?' Jackson asks, amusement lacing his words.

'Oh, the best of friends. Notorious partiers and well-known brats. Still thinking no one knows they're hooking up.' Jimin shrugs. 'You know.'

'Wouldn't people like. Not be surprised that they're fucking, though? They are soulmates, after all. Like, I know platonic soulmates are almost as common as romantic soulmates but... no one would be surprised.'

'Right? But Bambam's stubborn as fuck. They both are, actually. They only admitted to not hating each other like. Four months ago. They'll get there.'

Jackson laughs, loud and unashamed. 'Sounds like a fun lot.'

By the time the plane lands, she's given him her number and an invitation to call if he's lost or lonely in the big city of Seoul, and Dawon's blinking awake blearily, leaning heavily against Jimin in the line for customs, mumbling questions about her new friend.

Honestly, Jimin had had plenty of time to narrow her eyes at her Soulmark- after all, it had been there since she was born. For a while she thought her parents had named her as a joke, except she'd had to eventually admit that they weren't lying when they said the Hangul on her foot wasn't legible until she was at least 18 months, and even then, only dubiously so. 

It didn't bother her. After all, unique names were almost unheard of in Korean culture, a throwback to ancient superstition that demons would use your soulmate to try and manipulate you. 

'So naturally,' Jimin had complained to Yoonsun in a fit of teenage self-pity, 'the entire nation banded together to outwit the wily demons by making sure no one knew who their soulmate was for sure because every second person has the same goddamn name.'

'Don't be ridiculous,' Yoonsun said idly, flicking through a magazine, 'I think you'd know if that particular Kim Kibum was your soulmate. It's not all about the name, you know, there's compatibility involved.'

'Yeah, yeah, I know,' Jimin said, waving a hand, 'If you think they're an awful person they're probably not the one.' She rolled onto her stomach. 'I mean, you do hear of those cases were people are passably happy with someone who shares a name with their soulmate only to meet their actual soulmate when they're like married and stuff.'

'People are flawed, doesn't mean the system is,' Yoonsun returned, 'Besides, if you're unsure, there're always quizzes.' She dangled the magazine in front of Jimin's face, the page title 'Are They Your Soulmate?' blaring at her in pink bubble letters, multiple choice questions ensconced neatly below.

Besides, she was still young. Second year of university meant she was far from actively worrying about dying soulmate-less- well, partner-less, if she really was her own soulmate. There were too many variables in the soulmate game for people to invest their entire life into it- there was a famous story about a guy in the fifties (white, of course, with their increasingly bizarre names and spellings to aid in finding soulmates) who'd given up everything to search for his, stayed celibate, vowing to not have any kind of romantic relationship or interest in anyone who wasn't his soulmate; only to find, at the age of fifty-eight, when he met his soulmate, that their soulbond was platonic as fuck (paraphrasing the history books). Jimin was definitely not going to make that mistake; and she was far from alone in her thinking.

So waking up at her third- fourth alarm on the first day of classes, mouth tasting horrible and stomach turning at remnants of alcohol, as well as a faint memory of lips and tongue and wet and Jungkook's beanie on her pillow is pretty par for the course. 

Yerin's there to guide her to the shared showers, and Jimin isn't above begging her to wash her hair for her.

Yerin laughs. 'I'm already dressed.'

'That can change.'

'I'm sure you can manage this much.'

'It isn't even like it would be the first time,' Jimin whines and all she hears is Yerin's tinkling laugh. 'Fine,' she grumbles, stepping fully under the spray, 'Be unhelpful.'

'You should leave in about half an hour if you want to get to your first lecture on time,' Yerin tells her, 'Jaebum-oppa's buying me breakfast. See you later?'

Jimin lets out a sound of agreement as she yawns. 'Date night tonight?'

'Obviously, it's the first day of classes. You feel like Thai food?'

'Yeah. Get snacks and all that unhealthy good stuff,' Jimin says distractedly.

'Of course. I'm assuming you've got the crappy movies covered?'

'Duh, who do you think I am?'

Yerin laughs. 'Your first lecture's with Jungkook, right?'

'Yeah, I think so.'

'You guys were looking awful close last night.'

Jimin looked up- with her eyes still closed- at the lilting tone Yerin's voice took on.

'Ah, fuck, did we start bonding over shared classes last night? With our mouths?'

'I mean, that's what I saw, so that's gotta be the least of it.'

Jimin shakes her head and continues lathering her hair. 'Nah, pretty sure it was just making out. I mean, that solves that mystery. I had a feeling.'

Yerin laughs again, and Jimin's starting to think she's far too chipper. 'Have fun at class.'

'Yeah, yeah. Send my love to your BFF.'

She's making her way slowly across campus with a cup of coffee in hand when her phone buzzes.

 **[kookies n cream]** im in the back row

 **[jimin]** good for you

 **[kookies n cream]** where u

 **[jimin]** not there yet

 **[kookies n cream]** lol wut fuck i swear i just heard your name

 **[kookies n cream]** want me to save u a seat

 **[jimin]** ye ty

Jungkook greets her with a yawn when she slips into the seat to him, and she grunts back, focussing on her coffee.

He blinks at the red beanie on her head.

'Is that mine?'

'Yeah.'

He squints at her. 'Did we hook up last night?'

'Yeah.'

He sighs. 'I need to stop whoring around when drunk, damn.'

Jimin nods.

'Am I getting the beanie back?'

'No.'

She doesn't need to look at him to know he's pouting at her.

'It's my favourite, come on.'

'Yeah, okay. But not today. Bad hair day.'

Jungkook snorts. 'Too lazy to wash it properly?'

Jimin groans. 'Ugh, whose idea was it to get smashed the night before classes start?'

Jungkook pauses briefly before- 'Wasn't it yours?'

'Shut up.' 

It's a pretty standard elective class, so Jimin often struggles to stay awake and Jungkook is quite possibly the worst student ever, it is reconfirmed- they've shared lectures before, they're in the same university stream. Even so, she often gets a niggling feeling about it in the pit of her belly, and turns around at phantom calls of her name far more than is entirely normal.

'It's not haunted,' Jungkook says in the second month of the academic year, 'I hear your name sometimes, too.'

'And that means it's not haunted how?' Jimin demands, 'If anything, that just proves it.'

'Why would the ghost be singling you out?'

'I don't know!' Jimin exclaims, 'I mean, like, why wouldn't it, I'm awesome.'

'Why would a ghost haunting a lecture hall decide to just call your name sometimes? Not even at useful times, either, like when you're falling asleep.'

'Okay, but you could also wake me up, you dick, don't rely on supernatural forces to do that. I'm not you, it's not like it's hard,' Jimin snipes and Jungkook grins.

'Still got a fair amount of the way through a drawing on your cheek before you woke up the other day though.'

Jimin lugs him in the shoulder. 'Stick to my arm, asshole.'

'Hey,' Jungkook protests, 'As least it wasn't a dick!'

'Because you're not a twelve year old boy, amazingly.'

'You know Bambam would have drawn a dick.'

Jimin can't deny this. 'I need new male friends,' she mutters, 'Gyujin's the only one who allowed to stay.'

A month later, it's definitely not a phantom call of her name that rings out across the lecture hall- more like a strident yell let out by a guy at the door and Jimin startles. She has no idea who this guy is, and it takes her a few seconds to register that he's not looking anywhere near her, her gaze following his eyeline to a stockier built guy seated mid way down the hall just as the said guy yells out 'what?'.

'Bruh,' Jungkook says next to her, 'He has the same name as you.'

The import of that statement hits her probably half a second later and she squeaks and clatters off her chair, Jungkook dissolving into giggles next to her.

'What the fuck are you doing?' he chortles and Jimin just looks up at him with wide eyes.

He snaps a picture and soon enough, her phone pings, the picture having been sent through to the group chat.

**get ur drank on (1)**  
_kookies is typing..._

**[kookies n cream]** {image}

 **[kookies n cream]** lecture hall not haunted

 **[kookies n cream]** theres a dude here with the same name as her

 **[da₩]** !!!!!!!!!

 **[angry bird]** why is she hiding under the table

 **[kookies n cream]** lmao gyujin u were her favourite and everything

 **[da₩]** GIRL Y U unDer the TABLE U JUST FOUND UR SOULMATE

 **[jimin]** WE DONT KNOW THAT

 **[angry bird]** o shit lmao right

 **[jimin]** ihu

 **[da₩]** PARK JIMIN 

**[kookies n cream]** *girl park jimin

 **[da₩]** like i dnt even care her soulmate has been park jimin the second in my head like forever tbh

 **[sun-shine]** u have been bitching about not finding another park jimin forever y u not introducing urself and lowkeyhighkey trying to find his soulmark

 **[jimin]** i live under this desk now im never moving

 **[sun-shine]** who r u and what have you done with jimin

 **[jimin]** she dead

 **[roomie]** jungkook u might have to go grab him

 **[jimin]** YERIN U TRAITOR

 **[roomie]** whats the worst that can happen either youre soulmates or ur not no ones gonna get their heart broken

 **[jimin]** YOUR GAY ASS DATED YOUR VERY MALE SOULMATE FOR LIKE A YEAR

 **[roomie]** 6 months

 **[roomie]** and no hearts were broken bc platonic soulmates so it all good

 **[roomie]** at least i spoke to him

 **[angry bird]** yerin- 1 jimin- 0

 **[jimin]** ur no longer my fave gyujin

 **[angry bird]** ^^v

Jimin locks her phone and ignores the buzzing as Jungkook chuckles down at his phone.

She stays like that for the rest of the lecture, sulking. Every now and then, Jungkook remarks something softly like 'Dawon and Yoonsun are planning on stalking him.'

She punches his calf in retaliation- it's all his fault, after all. 

Chances are, this guy- this other Park Jimin- was her soulmate. But she has no way to be sure, other than trying to see his Soulmark, and she can't think of anything more mortifying then going up to someone who might be her soulmate and telling them that. She groans and buries her head in her arms. Hitting on people who are definitely not her soulmate is so much easier.

She hears chairs moving at the end of lecture and Jungkook grins at her when she hauls herself out from uner the desk, gathering her stuff. She narrows her eyes at him, but puts it down to gleeful amusement at her predicament right up until they're halfway down the stairs and he calls out to her potential soulmate.

'Park Jimin-ssi!' he calls, and the guy turns to look over in question, his loud friend from earlier looking over as well. 

'What are you doing,' Jimin hisses.

'I was too distracted to take notes and you obviously didn't take any,' he says innocently, before turning to wave at the guy, who starts making his way over, looking curious.

Jimin freezes, before pushing through the crowds to get out the lecture hall as quickly as possible, Jungkook's laughter following after her.

She spends the next couple days sending Jungkook furious messages and only receiving emoji's in reply, and complaining loudly to anyone who will listen. Bambam sends her the most ridiculous memes, which would normally make her laugh, except they're all soulmate related, so she threatens to punch him instead. She offers to pay Yugyeom to punch him for her, given that the two were hardly ever more than ten meters apart from each other.

Dawon and Yerin pin her down and do her nails on the Thursday, claiming to try make her feel better. Jimin relents, because she does love getting her nails done, and if they're doing her nails, they have to listen to her go on about how this probably is just a coincidence so there's nothing to talk about really. 

Yerin drags her out on the Friday, and Jimin- well, Jimin's never going to say no to free food, and she can't live in her room forever.

She's chatting idly when she pushes the door to the coffee shop open, eyes scanning around the shop before she stops. Jungkook is sitting there, with the guy from the lecture (Jimin knows his name, she just refuses to say or think it), and the loud friend. She turns to leave, but slams into the solid wall formed by Yerin and Jaebum, who is grinning at her.

'This is why you came along,' Jimin says, 'This is a conspiracy.'

'It's exactly what it is,' Jaebum replies.

'I thought you were my friend.'

'That's why I'm doing this.'

'Jungkook says he's really nice,' Yerin supplies, steering Jimin around and linking arms with her, Jaebum taking the other side.

Jimin knows if she tries to run, Jaebum is strong enough to just pick her up, but that doesn't stop her from digging her heels in to try delay the process.

Jungkook grins up at her with the grin of a devil as they approach the table. 'Hyung,' he says, turning to the other Jimin, 'This is the friend I was telling you about!'

Yerin pushes her none-too-gently into the chair Jaebum had pulled out a bit and she deflates into resignation. 

'Hi,' she says on a sigh. 'I'm Park Jimin.'

'Same,' Jimin says wryly, eyes flickering over her in curiousity.

'You're a lot prettier than this one,' the loud friend says brightly, 'Jiminie, I think I might have to swap.' 

'I will fight you,' his friend says.

'Bring it,' he returns. He grins at her, wide and boxy. 'Kim Taehyung.'

She nods. 'Nice to meet you.' 

Yerin clears her throat. 'This table's a bit small, I think we're going to find another one.'

'I'll join you,' Jungkook says, the furthest from subtle. 'Taehyung-hyung?'

'Yeah, we were having that conversation,' Taehyung agrees, and Jimin rolls his eyes in a way that lets Jimin know he's as transparent as Jungkook.

And then it's just the two of them.

'So,' Jimin starts, after a few moments, smiling at her. 'I hear you have my name on you.'

'I've been calling it my name for pretty much the entirety of my life. You know.'

He nods. 'Yeah, I do. Mine's on my right hand.' He lifts his hand so she can see the 'Park Jimin' scrawled across the back of it. He grins at her. 'High school was hell.'

She snorts, the implications in his words sinking in, and then she's laughing. 'I suppose I'm lucky mine's on my foot?' she manages and he laughs in response.

'I feel like even if yours was also on your hand you wouldn't have gotten as raw a deal as me,' he says confidently, leaning back in his chair.

She grins. 'Perks of being a girl?' 

'Do you want to order something?' he asks, and she looks around at where their friends were sitting, very unsubtly watching them, and nods.

'I think I'd be caught if I tried to run for it, so might as well.'

'Encouraging,' he says dryly, catching the attention of the waitress and she laughs, feeling better about the whole situation.

'Sorry for scarpering,' she says softly an hour later. 'It was just kind of a lot.'

Jimin nods. 'Yeah. I get it. Jungkookie probably should have warned you before he called me over on Wednesday. I guess I at least had a bit of preparation for first contact?'

'I still kind of want to punch him,' she tells him and he laughs.

'He did warn me that you were quite violent,' he remarks and she gapes indignantly.

'I'm- not!' she protests, only hesitating a little. 'Only if it's deserved! And he generally deserves it. It's not like he hasn't punched me a few times.'

Jimin's brow furrowed. 'He what?'

'On the arm,' she hastens to add. She may be willing to throw Jungkook under a bus at the best of times, but she won't have anyone doubting his character on her watch. 'Like siblings. We're like siblings.' She pauses. 'Except we have made out a couple times. So not like siblings in that way.' She pauses again, and then figures, might as well. 'Complete honesty, I've made out with quite a few of my friends. Our drinking nights very often involve drinking games. Things happen.'

'Sounds like it,' he says, eyebrows a little raised but smile fixed firmly on his face.

Jimin hesitates only slightly before continuing. 'You'll probably see for yourself soon enough.'

His grin turns fond, his eyes crinkling up. 'I'd like that.'

So maybe it's a lot earlier than she expected, but somehow, Jimin doesn't feel like she's going to be missing out on anything, wherever this goes.

(Also he's wearing a tank top and she will never admit it to anyone but those arms might be a lot of the reason why she didn't put up more of a fight at the door.)

**Author's Note:**

> i had a lot of fun writing this, even if i only realised right about when jiminsquared start speaking to each other the challenges of writing two characters sharing a name, which might be partly why this ended where it did (lies, i just felt like otherwise it would just be dragging on)  
> part of a collection of soulmate au's i'm playing around with.


End file.
